Canadian Expats In Texas On High Alert As Hurricane Harvey Remnants Continue

"When something like this happens.. I want to pack up and move back."

Canadian Press

Richard Carson / Reuters

Interstate highway 45 is submerged from the effects of Hurricane Harvey seen during widespread flooding in Houston, Texas, U.S. August 27, 2017.

HOUSTON — Canadian expats living in Texas said they've gone days without sleep as the remnants of hurricane Harvey continue to deluge the southeast coast Sunday.

Megan Giffin-Scheffers, who moved from Halifax to Houston four years ago, said "everything is overflowing'' in the Texas city, which is the fourth-largest in the U.S., as rising waters force thousands of people out of their homes.

Giffin-Scheffers, a mother of three, said she hasn't slept properly in two days as she and her husband take shifts on the lookout for signs of danger.

Every time her phone lights up with a tornado alert, her family has to hunker down in their pantry as wind gusts howl through the city like "freight trains,'' she said.

"As Canadians ... I don't think we really understood the impact of a hurricane,'' Giffin-Scheffers said in a phone interview. "I'm homesick every single day, and when something like this happens, that's just when I want to pack up and move back.''

Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, who is training in Houston, posted photos to social media of neighbourhoods flooded with murky waters that almost fully submerged a car.

"Feeling like an ant in an anthill today, here by the grace of Mother Nature,'' he tweeted. "Sometimes we get stepped on.''